<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Ted,<div><br></div><div>What I would say is that the "Department of Defense" doesn't work. All it did was add an extra layer of bureaucracy and has done nothing to increase efficiency or add to victory, what ever that is in this day and age.</div><div>Since the DoD was created, name a war the US was victorious in. While I believe in civilian control over the military, the DoD has gone too far and it tends to go too much into the sphere of responsibilities of the uniformed officer corps without using the established military chain of command. They have all the authority with none of the responsibility, and they are not subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice as they are not in the military.</div><div><br></div><div>And the DoD, for the most part, has become a dumping pot for patronage positions, most filled by political hacks or incompetent former military officers that couldn't hack it in uniform so they then come back in a suit!</div><div>I worked for one Brigadier General that was passed over for promotion even though the General he worked for was the President of the Promotion Board - TWICE.</div><div>He then wiggled himself a position as a deputy assistant secretary of defense, and could then really (and did) screw things up! He was so "beloved" by not only his enlisted soldiers but also by the officers that worked under him that we were ordered, in writing to attend his retirement party! Otherwise no one would have been there! In the words of one of the older soldiers from Alabama, "That boy couldn't lead soldiers to free liquor and loose women"!</div><div>And yes, he was one of the strong advocates of using contractors/mercenaries, and you see how successful that has been!</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On Sep 16, 2009, at 5:03 PM, Ted Moffett wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 9:05 AM, Kai Eiselein <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:editor@lataheagle.com">editor@lataheagle.com</a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class="gmail_quote"> <div bgcolor="#ffffff"> <div><font face="Arial">Highly centralized government programs do not work. </font></div></div></blockquote> <div> </div> <div>This statement implies you think that the Pentagon, the US Marines, Army, Navy and Air force,<br>"do not work."</div> <div> </div> <div>I am amazed again and again that the critics of government run programs rarely attack the US military when they make their arguments against these programs, yet the arguments they use apply just as well to the government run US armed forces.</div> <div> </div> <div>Perhaps the US armed forces should be completely privatized?</div> <div> </div> <div>Ted Moffett</div></div> =======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br> <a href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a> <br> <a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a><br>=======================================================</blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>